Membership Expired Kat Hunter
Membership ExpiredForum Replies Created
-
Haha I’m just a nerd, really 😛
-
PPS. I think you also have to change your tactic for different students, obviously. If a student only has a month of lessons with me before he goes on a cruise ship or before he goes on tour, the science is 100% only on a need-to-know basis. However if the student is not a performer and has a scientific mind, then obviously I am happy to explain things in greater detail with time.
-
PS. I read in Titze’s book, Vocology, that there’s strong evidence to suggest that motor learning is actually MORE effective when students are not thinking about the physical processes involved in the task. There are probably many differing studies on this, but there is a large proponent of thought that believes that when a sportsman, dancer, or performer is able to focus only on their own sensation during the act, rather than the movement of specific muscles and cartilages, that motor learning is adopted much faster. Just food for thought. This is especially profound when you consider that much of the vocal mechanism cannot be directly felt or seen. YES, a scientific approach from the teacher’s point of view is vital, but if one of my students just needed to lower their larynx to sing better, I would prefer to give them a larynx lowering exercise as soon as they walk in the door, so that they can first experience what it feels like. And then when they can identify with the greater vocal ease that that exercise brings, then, if they ask to know more of the science, I will tell them. I think at least that way, the scientific learning doesn’t take place in a vacuum. Just my own personal take on it.
-
Haha I’m not even sure if that answers your question. But hopefully it does 🙂
-
Re. registers: although in reality as we make pitch roughly everything stays the same except for a shift in primary usage from the TA muscle to the CT muscle, nevertheless, as students experience a shift in resonance, this can wreak havoc with the tonal quality of the voice. This is usually at E4 for the majority of men and A4 for many women (or the first passaggio) although of course there are exceptions. As you will have discovered, there is a often a “break” in the voice where it flips from chest to head or chest to falsetto etc., either suddenly or gradually. This kind of break can be found in most voices and is probably the singularly most hampering thing to the extension of range, and the expression of the soul in music. This is why most of the primary focus of SLS, IVA and other Bel Canto teachers is on registrational issues (ie. the blending of the chest and head voices to create one continuous and consistent voice that can be accessed and navigated with ease). This was also the main focus of the schola cantorum, and indeed almost all vocal pedagogy until about the 1850s. That’s (1800s) when “wagnerian” and more heavy, shouty styles of singing became the fashion in opera, and so the technique had to change from something that aimed for balance, to something that aimed for the maximum strain and loudness on the voice. Thats also when things like the resonance schools (“Place it in the masque!”) and the 100% breathing focused schools (“Support from the diaphragm! Support!”) came into fashion. Of course a focus on resonance and breathing can be helpful, but science has come a long way since then… If you read your Ingo Titze, Richard Miller, Cornelius Reid, Manuel Garcia, E. Herbert-Caesari, or any of that ilk of more recent scientists and pedagogues, there is strong evidence for the “mixed voice” as being one of the primary goals of vocal development.
